“Cannabis is what helps me cope”

Cannabis Health speaks to cannabis and CBD entrepreneur, Susanne (AKA SusieHemp), about her thirty-year relationship with the plant and why she is now giving small doses of CBD to her non-verbal autistic son.

Susanne, a mother-of-three from Cheshire, has used cannabis since the age of 20.

Due to a number of traumas in her life, including the tragic passing of her partner, the 50-year-old says she has depended “heavily” on both alcohol and cannabis at points in her life.

She was able to stop drinking several years ago and hasn’t touched alcohol since. She did, however, continue to consume cannabis. She didn’t know why, she says, but it was “working” for her.

Eighteen months ago, Susanne was diagnosed with autism and ADHD and it suddenly made sense to her why she was benefiting from cannabis.

Although scientists are still in the early stages of research, anecdotal evidence and early studies suggest that cannabinoids such as CBD could help alleviate symptoms related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Research into cannabis and ADHD is equally patchy, however, many people with the condition report that cannabis helps manage symptoms such as agitation, irritability and lack of restraint.

A research paper from 2016, for example, analysed just under three hundred online forum threads. I found that 25 per cent of posts were from people reporting the therapeutic effects of cannabis. Only 8 percent of posts reported negative effects.

“I self-medicate,” Susanne says over Zoom.

“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke [cigarettes], I have an addictive personality, I am autistic and cannabis is what has helped me cope.”

She continues: “Cannabis lifts my mood instantly. I self-sabotage and that’s all part of autism. I look in the mirror and I would hate myself because of the traumas that I’ve been through. But after taking cannabis I can focus, it just changes how I think from negative to the other way.”

Having researched the potential benefits of CBD for ADHD and autism, Susanne wondered if it could help her son, Lucas.

Lucas, who is 12-years-old, lives with non-verbal autism. It is clear from talking to Susanne how much she loves her son, however as a single mum caring for a child with such a severe form of the condition, it has taken a toll on her wellbeing.

“I can’t speak to anyone when he’s around. I can’t have relationships with people, I’ve lost a lot of my social life because he consumes all of my time,” she says.

“He terrorises the house, he destroys everything to the point where I’m in tears, but he’s my son.”

During the Covid-19 crisis, Susanne describes being traumatised as the lack of respite from her care duties caused her mental health to plummet.

“My mental health has declined a lot because I’m in a very difficult situation, she says.

“A lot of people don’t have to cope with what I’ve had to deal with during Covid.”

Lucas has been prescribed ADHD medication on several occasions, but Susanne describes these periods as being “dreadful” for her son.

“They suppressed his appetite so much that I actually saw him wasting away in front of my eyes,” she says.

“I got to the point where I just couldn’t deal with it.

“It wasn’t doing him any good. I thought, ‘why am I giving him these tablets?’ I had to make the decision to stop it.”

She made the decision to bring Lucas off of his ADHD medication two months ago.

Having experienced for herself the benefits of cannabis for addressing mental health issues, autism and ADHD, Susanne decided to try Lucas on CBD.

He now takes just one drop of CBD oil a day in the form of a patch which he wears in bed.

Susanne says she saw a change in Lucas instantly after he started taking CBD.

“I had to look for alternatives to help us as a family, nobody else can,” she continues.

“I noticed a huge difference in his behaviour. I see it visually, he’s more relaxed and calm.

“With the patches, I have noticed that he wakes up in the morning and sits in bed for a while. Normally he would be out banging the doors, but now he’s lying in his bed happy.”

Things also changed for Lucas at school. Regular reports from his teachers show periods of time where he was disengaged and eating very little or nothing at all. This coincided with the periods that he was taking ADHD medications.

After he started taking CBD, his behaviour at school dramatically improved. She recalls receiving a recent report praising her son for being “lively as ever, engaged and eating us through the house.”

In her professional life, Susanne built a successful career in social care, working with children with attachment disorder, special needs and autism.

However, due to the lack of support from social services, Susanne was forced to leave her job five years ago to care for her son.

“I couldn’t put Lucas into [care] during the holidays, so I ended up having to come out of work and as a result, I struggled financially,” she adds.

Living on a carer’s allowance of £67 pounds per week, Susanne was unable to afford her car and struggled to keep up with mortgage payments.

“It was a nightmare,” she says.

“I was a lone carer trying to pay a mortgage.”

She also had to face the stigma of being a cannabis user on a day-to-day basis. On one occasion a neighbour reported Susanne to social services, leading to police and social workers “invading” her home and personal life.

“People are allowed to take antidepressants and that’s okay, but if somebody wants to take cannabis, that’s wrong.

Susanne and Lucas, 12.

“I was put in a position where I was discriminated against for using cannabis. It led me to think, ‘why am I being pushed into a corner like this? I’m doing nothing wrong here’,” she says.

In an effort to find other people like her, Susanne turned to social media where she posted about her experiences as a mum of a neurodiverse child and her passion for cannabis and its medicinal benefits.

She continues: “I just couldn’t find other people like me. People would look at me and judge me and think I’m a stoner.

“But I held down a job for 37/40 hours a week, I brought up three children on my own, I have my own home.

“Why are people judging me? Because I choose to smoke a plant?”

Having built a dedicated following on social media over the past three years, Susanne is now setting up an online platform to promote the medical benefits of cannabis.

The website, called Susie’sHemp, will publish interviews with cannabis advocates and promote both her own and other cannabis brands.

Lucas will also be the subject of a blog about autism, neurodiversity and the potential benefits of CBD for autism.

“I want it to be a diversity of interests for lots of different people, pulling together those that I’ve worked with for the last three years and have helped me.

“A lot of people don’t know about the different cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system. I have to advocate for it and the website will be a platform for educating people,” she adds.

“It’s about getting the message out there to society and ultimately, the nub of it is education.”